We'll Watch the Sunset - Peeta Mellark x Reader Story

Chapter 17 - Forcefield

Today was the day of the games, and across Panem, many were nervous, or in some cases, incredibly excited, but the majority were nervous.

Peeta and Katniss lied next to each other, trying to find some last minutes of comfort, before being thrown into an arena and be forced to kill other people. Peeta had been distracted a lot over the past few hours, thinking of y/n, of home. The two's peace was over as someone knocked on the door, signalling it was time to prepare.

"See you later," Peeta said, getting up and walking out, as Katniss just nodded in reply.

*****

I watched with Gale, Mom having taken the younger ones on a walk around District 12 that would take up enough time that they wouldn't be in the house when the bloodbath is being shown. Mrs Hawthorne was in the kitchen, doing the laundry.

The clock counted down from 10 to 0, and once it reached 0, we watched as many of the tributes dived into the water. The arena was interesting this year, tropical, jungle. Incredibly different from last years games. Gale and I looked on from a birds eye view, being able to see all the different tributes. One cannon went off, and the angle switched to Finnick Odair, who was speaking with Katniss.

"Don't trust one and two. You hold them off, I'll find Peeta."

Then immediately the view switched to Peeta. It felt like my heart stopped, Mags, from District 4, watched on as one of the tributes engaged in a fight with Peeta. Two more people ran up to Mags, who I quickly realised was Katniss and Finnick. Everything happened in a blur, Finnick dived into the water as Peeta was dragged underwater. Only a few seconds later did a cannon go off and a body float to the surface, although their face was still in the water.

I stood up, and walked to the kitchen, taking a second, just trying to get my heart to slow down.

"Y/n/n, he's okay. It wasn't Peeta."

Mrs Hawthorne wiped her hands dry and wrapped me in her arms, rocking me back and forth, shushing me gently, like a baby who woke up and wasn't going back to sleep.

"Shhh, it's okay, sweet girl, it's okay."

A couple hours later, we were just watching the career pack make their way through the jungle, until the image changed and in a heap on the floor was a tangle of Finnick, Mags, Katniss and Peeta, but there was one problem. Peeta wasn't moving. Shoving Katniss away, Finnick started CPR on Peeta. Which confused all of us. I didn't realise I was holding my breath until Gale looked at me, when I had grabbed his hand, probably too hard, and wrapped an arm around me.

"Breath, y/n."

It felt like time had slowed down while I waited to see if a cannon would go off, signalling the end of Peeta's life. But no cannon came. I saw him take a deep breath, his eyes fluttering open. I sighed in relief, shaking my head.

"I can't. I'm going to the forest."

"You can't, it's too dangerous," My mom said, grabbing my hand.

"I've done it before, and plus, we need the food. I need to get away from the games as well. I want to make sure they're all right, but I just can't."

Mom reluctantly let me go, and I moved through the streets of the Seam, stealthily moving through the house and past the Peacekeepers on patrol. I slid my body through the small hole under the electric fence near my old house, which didn't have any electricity running through it. It had been faulty for years, even when the power was on, made it helpful for on the rare occasion that the fence's power was turned on. Running to the tree line, I evaded the sight of the peacekeeper walking past my house at the time.